It is common practice, for example in the metallurgical art, to heat treat and then cool or quench a workpiece or part for one or more of a variety of reasons. This heat treatment and cooling process may be used to develop desired microstructure and mechanical properties in the metal part, with the typical desire to avoid physical defects such as cracking, distortion and residual stresses which impact such characteristics as machinability during manufacture, assembly, or repair, and fatigue life of the part.
Quench pressing involves quenching a workpiece by restraining it in dies while controlling the quenchant flow to different parts of the surface until the part is fully cooled to a predetermined temperature. This heat treat related process is widely used for precision parts that need exact dimensions after quenching.
Although quenched workpieces are typically under closely controlled conditions while in a press, very often the workpiece must be transferred manually from the reheat furnace to the quench press, and removed from it. Further, the quench press tooling must be changed, typically several times in a single shift. This may involve reaching into a live press, excessive bending and reaching to tighten or loosen bolts, and significant time lost to align boltholes.
The present disclosure addresses those issues.